Updated pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last couple weeks -

Lucas' bowling birthday party, Space Science Center Field Trip, Girl Scout delivery of shoes trip, Lucas creek field trip, last night's GNO to celebrate my friend Michelle's birthday........ Have a great weekend!











I had some other cute ones. I tried to upload on slide.com but it didn't like my photos - then I got tired of trying to post the pictures!!! Oh well - I tried :)

I'm addicted

Well not completely - but my 20th HS reunion is coming up - yes I'm on the planning committee.... crazy - but anyway - everyone is on Facebook.com, it's kinda like that other one, what is it called? Oh yeah, MySpace - totally have never looked into doing it - but my girl friend Louise kept telling me to log on - there is the BEST picture of me on there, it is HILARIOUS!!! I'll see if I can download it - tons of my friends from HS are on there, so I finally broke down got an account and BAM, I have 35 friends.....seems to grow every time I look at it!!

Just means I have another website to keep track of - ugh!

Blustery Weekend

I felt like Winnie the Pooh this weekend, we literally almost blew away! We had a horrific wind storm, and the worst part was - we had back to back baseball games on Saturday and it was freezing!!!!

It wasn't very fun sitting in the wind - I felt yucky all night after it and on Sunday - even at church I thought - I should just go home!

I got to go to lunch with Linda & her sister Julie & mom today, it was nice - we took the bigger/little kids to the drop-in day care - gotta love it! We had yummy Tomatino's - Linda and I decided we must be giant pigs next to her mom & sister, they couldn't finish their Piadine, Linda and I had NO problem!!! Ha ha.... our nice waiter Dexter took our pix, hopefully Linda uploads it to the blog!

I feel like we've been just going on autopilot lately - just baseball, baseball, dance, and baseball.... well, off to another game in 5 mins, just wanted you to know I didn't blow away!

My Girl & Our Human Footprint

Today was a busy, but nice day - We had speech and ran to costco to get hotdogs for our potluck - Ian had a ball game and we had a successful potluck this time! When we came home Tyler had stayed home after dance to do her homework - she's had some monster projects due lately.



She had the whole downstairs clean for me!!!! It was so so so nice to come home to a nice clean house - when the kids came home from school we had all crazy stuff you know - homework all over, mail, backpacks, papers, my hotdogs cooking, and my neighbor walked in....so embarrassing! But she tidied everything up - the dishes were done, well actually I think I did the dishes before I left, but she had taken out the trash, vacuumed, and just had everything put away so nicely!!! And she wrote me a card saying how much she loved me... you just couldn't ask for a better daughter - I love her so much! She knows I've been really tired and overwhelmed with laundry and all the projects I mentioned the other day. I am so lucky!

I'm watching the National Geographic documentary - Human Footprint it is amazing! And kind of disgusting how much we consume and use! You need to watch it if you can - it is on again Sunday night......it is so an eyeopener!

I'm still here

Hello loyal readers!!! Our life has been so busy lately I have been sadly neglecting my blogging duties. We've been tackling 2 baseball games/practices now as well as our usual 4 days of dance, 2 piano lessons (on separate days - ugh!), chess club, and cub scouts, girl scouts, and young women's - and those are just the after school activities!

I know, overscheduled family - we're what those books are all written about. It's funny because they all sound like great fun individually but when you list them out like that - whew it's a lot.

Last week I did my Cinderella Classic Ride - the 63 mile ride I was training for since January - it was great - it was much more enjoyable than any of the training rides were. There are rest stops and lots and lots of food! Ladies ride with tiara's strapped to their helmets, and wear tutus or anything pink - I rode near some ladies that rigged a glass slipper, magic wand and pumpkin onto their helmet! I finished with a riding time of 4:44, not bad for my first one.

I had stopped near the end to help a friend with a flat - luckily because I saw Linda pass by in her car and my kids were able to stop at the tennis park in time to see me ride by after their baseball games.

My girlscout troop is working on their Bronze Award - each girl is required to put in 15 hours of work on the project - we're doing the Nike-Reuse-a-Shoe program where we've been collecting used athletic shoes - we've collected I think close to 15 sacks of shoes so far - we deliver them on Friday to an athletic store and then we're DONE!!!!! It has taken so much time....but it's worth it - it's our last year - well, my last year - because with Tyler in Young Women's it's double the work - it's sad the church doesn't support GS. Plus I've been the leader since kindergarten and I'm tired - we've grown to 21 girls last year, 19 this year.....



Last week is almost a blur for me now too - but today - I'm just sitting at home, catching up on my mountain of laundry and hanging out watching Backyardians with Lucas.... until tonight - more baseball & girlscouts!


This weekend was gorgeous! Last night we ate outside and had a BBQ! It was so nice!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCAS!

Yikes it's been a while since I've blogged. It has been crazy busy since our Spring Break - although you'd think it shouldn't be. It is so nice to be on the downward slide for school, but at the same time it is picking up.

Last Friday was Lucas' Golden Birthday - his bday is 4/4/04 and he is the 4th baby - so he turned the BIG 4! We went bowling with his little buddies and then went to Chuck E's after with Hayden - they are twins born on different days - ha ha - Hayden's bday (Linda's 5th) is one day before Lucas'.

Lucas is very gentle - he is my little baby for sure - I'm so happy he is fully potty trained now. He's fun to hang out with although many times I don't understand what he is saying! He was a very easy baby and now just loves being one of the boys.

We celebrated with my brother last week and my SIL's bday is next Friday so we put a candle in a pie for the two of them. Mind you Sandra didn't mind that it was a Lighting McQueen candle!

I've finally gotten the pictures on from Tahoe - it was beautiful up there. Now we're planning the summer - there is no rest for the weary. Plus with Baseball season in full swing we're going crazy with 2 players - 3 practices/week and 2-3 games/week - yikes! Glad Tyler isn't playing as well - I'd be sure admitted to the crazy house.

I had an extremely bad loss of temper last week - to where I can't even detail all of it, but it makes me think of my friends and what so much better examples they are - I need to be more patient, scarily I'm much more patient than I used to be - I always think "when I get older I'll be more patient" but how much older I'm not sure, I hope I don't have to wait until I'm 90!

We saw my grandfather Sunday after conference - it was the first time I'd been back to my grandma's house since she passed away in January. He is doing well and cleaning things out - it is amazing how much stuff you can collect when you're 85 years old....something I'm trying to work out now - see Christina, I would hire you to help me now!!! :)

Well enjoy the pictures - I have many blogs to catch up on - I've missed you all!

Sleeping angel

Hayden & Lucas

Decked out in a Tuxedo for Uncle's Wedding

He's the youngest, he got tortured the most....

Tahoe Skiers

This is why they call it Heavenly

Lucas & Auntie Sandra

Mom's co-op day for his birthday!

Spring Break

So I've been trying for 2 days to post my pictures, I'll have to do it when I get back I guess. The kids and I are in Tahoe for spring break - we took ski lessons - mine was a bust, but the kids had a great time! Mike had to stay behind to work and train.

We arrived Monday after having a fun Easter - the Smiths came over for our annual egg hunt, luckily Linda's pictures I see made it on the blog.

My mom arrived on Saturday and she came up here with us - which is really fun - she's been hanging out with Lucas so I can take the kids on their ski trips - but keep in mind - I'm NOT a skier. However I must say that it was a little like riding a bike, I remembered much more than I thought I would and didn't fall - tomorrow is our next day to go - on our own - I fully anticipate falling....

I have a great connection to the internet luckily but must be too slow to get the pictures downloaded - oh well. I had wanted to do the fun SPt this week as well but that's okay.

We saw Horton Hears a Who today - it was so cute! I took Tyler & Chandler ice skating as well. Luckily my mom already got to visit the casinos and I took her to a couple quilt shops. I like this location because there is a little bit for everyone. We're staying at Heavenly Village at the Marriott, I highly recommend it as it really has everything!

Well, enough ramblings for now, but I wanted to let you know I was still breathing.......

Science Fair & SPT

Need I say more?


The boys both wanted to do science projects this year...very fun, but always so time consuming. Last weekend was Chandler's Destination Imagination competition - it was FANTASTIC! We've never done it before and it was so fun, so very creative, and it amazes me how creative the kids are and what great problem solvers they all are.

Ian lost 2 teeth yesterday! One in the AM, which I was awaken by "MOM! I JUST LOST MY TOOTH" at o'dark thirty. The second one was after school when I gave my kid a so nutritious snack in the car (well a cracker, it could have been worse!) so the Tooth Fairy left $5. He looks so funny now - he has 3 spaces, 2 front teeth missing and one bottom tooth.

We had a tragedy in our ward this week as well. It's been horrible. One of the RS teachers in our ward, a super choice woman - she was a professor at Cal State Hayward - she and her husband were found brutally beaten to death in their home. They lived in a semi-reclusive area of a country club - they weren't found for a week - others have speculated, but not one person in our ward tried to guess anything, I was really impressed with that. The woman was stellar - we never met her husband because he wasn't a member, or if he was he never came - but I got the sense her daughter is, not sure about her son. She was only 57 years old. Her kids are grown with families of their own - how do you tell your kids? Their daughter lives in Utah and couldn't get hold of her parents so made phone calls and had people check on them - that's how they were found.

Kiss your babies tonight and call your parents to check on them!


SPT - "Your feet will take you to where your heart is"....



Well I think in my case today.......




it was more my stomach than my heart!

Day by Day

Just doing our thing - our weekends go very fast and don't slow down until Wednesday, then pick up again the next Friday.....that seems to be our pattern lately.

Friday my good friend Grace came over for lunch - I've blogged about her before - I always have fun when I'm with her -

Saturday I had my stamp camp - it's always so much work, but I always have a good time when I'm there. I was considering stopping, but I can't do the next one anyway so maybe that is just the break I need. We had our Chili Cook-off for the YM/YW fundraiser for camp - we spend $45 for a loaf of bread from the ward bread maker - it was very yummy I told the kids to eat EVERY CRUMB!

Sundays are Sundays - need I say more?

Monday - It's kind of a blur now, I can't even remember

Tuesday - I had Bunco at my house - it's always nice to have friends over

Today - just speech, Dr's appointment & costco - I got one of those Jabra Bluetooth speakerphones for the car....getting ready for the Handsfree Law to kick in I think in July! Yikes

I didn't get a chance to SPT, it was such an easy one too - maybe I'll still try SPT (Thursday!).....

Roller Coaster

I think I've mentioned this before - but I have one kid that would drive me to drink. In the mornings he's a pill - today it was about the waffles - I only have a toaster with 2 slots, I know very sad for a family with 4 kids - I don't wake up at dawn to make them fresh homemade waffles anymore (bad mom) so he comes down first, which is great, makes his waffles, but then proceeds to monopolize the toaster from everyone else - instead of make 2, put 2 in, let someone else eat them, put 2 more in......he usually wakes up whining, usually when he comes into the car or comes home after school he's already whining about not eating enough at lunch, "what's for dinner?" eeeeewwwww, and whines at night.

Last night I had a sitter for an hour, 1 HOUR, Tyler and I had to go to church for New Beginnings - he calls me - "I don't know if I have to used lined paper for my homework".....hellooooooo??? How in the world would I know? I wasn't in his class today! Last week during my 41 mile bike ride he called me, "When do I have practice?" - did you look at the color coded spreadsheet I left out for the babysitter??!!!

This is also the kid however who is the most loving, best manners, rule follower and very nice to people - so why does he constantly grate on my nerves?? I know it could be the middle child syndrome, he needs more attention, but helloooooo - there are 4 kids, the other "middle" isn't like that so I just need him to deal with it. I love him, but he drives me batty - I guess there is always ONE.

My girl friend suggested taking away a toy or video time when he whines, maybe I'll try that one...heaven help the girl he marries, or the companion he has as a missionary - but hopefully he'll out grow it by his next birthday (yeah right)....a mom can always wish...any other advice?